1. Content descriptors
The descriptors identify the language knowledge, literary experiences and literacy practices students develop in Year 2.
Australian Curriculum v9
Year 2 English Curriculum: Achievement Standard and Content Descriptors
Bring the Year 2 English achievement standard and all 27 linked descriptors into one planning view. The Language, Literature and Literacy groups help teachers connect oral language, reading, viewing and creating across a balanced program.
Available combined curriculum hubs
Browse published English curriculum maps.
All English achievement standards | All English content descriptors
How the curriculum elements fit together
2. Learning and assessment
Plan connected experiences with quality texts, explicit instruction, discussion, reading, viewing and creating.
3. Achievement standard
A body of evidence should include receptive and productive work across oral, written and multimodal contexts.
ASENGY2
Open the standalone ASENGY2 page →
Achievement standard (as ACARA publishes it)
Achievement standard
Click any sentence to jump to its statement and linked content descriptors.
By the end of Year 2, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken texts including stories. They share ideas, topic knowledge and appreciation of texts when they recount, inform or express an opinion, including details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts. They organise and link ideas, and use language features including topic-specific vocabulary and features of voice.
They read, view and comprehend texts, identifying literal and inferred meaning, and how ideas are presented through characters and events. They describe how similar topics and information are presented through the structure of narrative and informative texts, and identify their language features and visual features. They use phonic and morphemic knowledge, and grammatical patterns to read unfamiliar words and most high-frequency words. They use punctuation for phrasing and fluency.
They create written and/or multimodal texts including stories to inform, express an opinion, adapt an idea or narrate for audiences. They use text structures to organise and link ideas for a purpose. They punctuate simple and compound sentences. They use topic-specific vocabulary. They write words using consistently legible unjoined letters. They spell words with regular spelling patterns, and use phonic and morphemic knowledge to attempt to spell words with less common patterns.
The 13 achievement standard statements
Open a statement to see the content descriptors ACARA links to it, then open a descriptor's elaborations.
By the end of Year 2, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken texts including stories.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA01 Language
investigate how interpersonal language choices vary depending on the context, including the different roles taken on in interactions
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration exploring culturally specific greetings and expressions of politeness
- Elaboration exploring First Nations Australian cultural protocols in Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country, and the greeting words used by local First Nations Australians
- Elaboration exploring how familiarity with a group or individual influences language choices
Content descriptorAC9E2LE03 Literature
discuss the characters and settings of a range of texts and identify how language is used to present these features in different ways
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration comparing how similar characters or settings are described in texts from different contexts; for example, how the seasons are described
- Elaboration identifying and comparing verb groups used to convey actions, emotions and dialogue in a range of literary texts
- Elaboration identifying the language used to describe the landscape in First Nations Australians’ stories
Content descriptorAC9E2LE05 Literature
create and edit literary texts by adapting structures and language features of familiar literary texts through drawing, writing, performance and digital tools
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration inventing some speech, dialogue or behaviour for a favourite character, which may include the use of video and audio tools, for an alternative event or outcome in the original text
- Elaboration reviewing and developing sentences; for example, adding prepositional phrases such as “with a long tail” to improve descriptions
Content descriptorAC9E2LY02 Literacy
use interaction skills when engaging with topics, actively listening to others, receiving instructions and extending own ideas, speaking appropriately, expressing and responding to opinions, making statements, and giving instructions
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration exploring ways to comment on what others say, including using sentence starters such as “I like the way you …”, “I agree that …”, “I have a different thought …”, “I’d like to say something different …”
- Elaboration demonstrating appropriate listening behaviours, responding to and paraphrasing a partner’s contribution to a discussion; for example, in think pair share activities
- Elaboration asking relevant questions and making connections with personal experiences and the contributions of others
- Elaboration understanding how to disagree or respectfully offer an alternative
Content descriptorAC9E2LY05 Literacy
use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning
Elaborations (7)
- Elaboration listening for specific information and providing key facts or points from an informative or persuasive text
- Elaboration listening and responding to detailed instructions
- Elaboration integrating information from print, images and prior knowledge to make supportable inferences
- Elaboration identifying the main idea of a text
- Elaboration predicting vocabulary that is likely to be in a text, based on the topic and the purpose of the text; for example, predicting that “station” and “arrive” would be in a text recounting a train journey
- Elaboration using prior knowledge to make and confirm predictions when reading a text
- Elaboration using graphic organisers to represent the connections between characters, order of events or sequence of information
Content descriptorAC9E2LY07 Literacy
create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations for familiar audiences and purposes, using text structure appropriate to purpose and topic-specific vocabulary, and varying tone, volume and pace
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration preparing and delivering oral presentations using more formal language and specific vocabulary about content area topics
- Elaboration sequencing ideas, points or events appropriately
- Elaboration adjusting volume and tone when speaking in more formal situations
They share ideas, topic knowledge and appreciation of texts when they recount, inform or express an opinion, including details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA02 Language
explore how language can be used for appreciating texts and providing reasons for preferences
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration exploring how language is used to appreciate texts using more precise vocabulary; for example, “I liked how the author described the setting because …”
- Elaboration exploring verbs used to express degree of preference; for example, “liked”, “preferred”, “enjoyed”
- Elaboration identifying First Nations Australian language words specific to Country/Place that help the reader to be specific when appreciating the setting in a text
Content descriptorAC9E2LE01 Literature
discuss how characters and settings are connected in literature created by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration discussing the depiction of characters in particular settings in well-known fairytales from wide-ranging world authors; for example, children in forests, and royalty in castles and towers
- Elaboration recognising recurring characters in particular settings in texts by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration exploring the way wide-ranging Australian authors and illustrators depict the Australian outback and the associated characters
Content descriptorAC9E2LE02 Literature
identify features of literary texts, such as characters and settings, and give reasons for personal preferences
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration discussing preferences for stories set in familiar or unfamiliar worlds, or about characters whose lives are like or unlike their own
- Elaboration discussing their feelings about the positive and negative behaviours of non-human characters, such as animals
Content descriptorAC9E2LE03 Literature
discuss the characters and settings of a range of texts and identify how language is used to present these features in different ways
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration comparing how similar characters or settings are described in texts from different contexts; for example, how the seasons are described
- Elaboration identifying and comparing verb groups used to convey actions, emotions and dialogue in a range of literary texts
- Elaboration identifying the language used to describe the landscape in First Nations Australians’ stories
Content descriptorAC9E2LY02 Literacy
use interaction skills when engaging with topics, actively listening to others, receiving instructions and extending own ideas, speaking appropriately, expressing and responding to opinions, making statements, and giving instructions
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration exploring ways to comment on what others say, including using sentence starters such as “I like the way you …”, “I agree that …”, “I have a different thought …”, “I’d like to say something different …”
- Elaboration demonstrating appropriate listening behaviours, responding to and paraphrasing a partner’s contribution to a discussion; for example, in think pair share activities
- Elaboration asking relevant questions and making connections with personal experiences and the contributions of others
- Elaboration understanding how to disagree or respectfully offer an alternative
Content descriptorAC9E2LY07 Literacy
create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations for familiar audiences and purposes, using text structure appropriate to purpose and topic-specific vocabulary, and varying tone, volume and pace
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration preparing and delivering oral presentations using more formal language and specific vocabulary about content area topics
- Elaboration sequencing ideas, points or events appropriately
- Elaboration adjusting volume and tone when speaking in more formal situations
They organise and link ideas, and use language features including topic-specific vocabulary and features of voice.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA02 Language
explore how language can be used for appreciating texts and providing reasons for preferences
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration exploring how language is used to appreciate texts using more precise vocabulary; for example, “I liked how the author described the setting because …”
- Elaboration exploring verbs used to express degree of preference; for example, “liked”, “preferred”, “enjoyed”
- Elaboration identifying First Nations Australian language words specific to Country/Place that help the reader to be specific when appreciating the setting in a text
Content descriptorAC9E2LA03 Language
identify how texts across the curriculum are organised differently and use language features depending on purposes
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration identifying the typical features of a text; for example, a typical introduction to a narrative or the use of dot points in instructions
- Elaboration identifying that different types of texts might have different forms; for example, an expression of opinion might be in the form of a poster, email or brochure
- Elaboration identifying the organisation and language features in texts such as narratives, recounts, information reports, simple procedures, expression of opinion and responses to texts (including poetry), and discuss their purposes
Content descriptorAC9E2LA09 Language
experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit the topic
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration selecting vocabulary appropriate to the topic to replace everyday language
- Elaboration discussing new vocabulary encountered in learning area texts
- Elaboration exploring language used to describe characters in narratives, including nouns; for example, “magician”, “wizard”, “sorcerer”, and adjectives such as “gentle”, “timid” or “frightened”
- Elaboration identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to a topic
Content descriptorAC9E2LE04 Literature
identify, reproduce and experiment with rhythmic sound and word patterns in poems, chants, rhymes or songs
Elaborations (1)
- Elaboration exploring poems, chants, rhymes or songs from different home languages of class members
Content descriptorAC9E2LE05 Literature
create and edit literary texts by adapting structures and language features of familiar literary texts through drawing, writing, performance and digital tools
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration inventing some speech, dialogue or behaviour for a favourite character, which may include the use of video and audio tools, for an alternative event or outcome in the original text
- Elaboration reviewing and developing sentences; for example, adding prepositional phrases such as “with a long tail” to improve descriptions
Content descriptorAC9E2LY07 Literacy
create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations for familiar audiences and purposes, using text structure appropriate to purpose and topic-specific vocabulary, and varying tone, volume and pace
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration preparing and delivering oral presentations using more formal language and specific vocabulary about content area topics
- Elaboration sequencing ideas, points or events appropriately
- Elaboration adjusting volume and tone when speaking in more formal situations
They read, view and comprehend texts, identifying literal and inferred meaning, and how ideas are presented through characters and events.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA05 Language
navigate print and screen texts using chapters, tables of contents, indexes, side-bar menus, drop-down menus or links
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration recognising how numbered chapters, organisation of tables of content and alphabetical order of indexes operate to support access to information
- Elaboration exploring how the navigation tools of different websites can be used to locate information
Content descriptorAC9E2LA06 Language
understand that connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with 2 or more independent clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction
Elaborations (1)
- Elaboration using coordinating conjunctions; for example, “and”, “but”, “so” to construct compound sentences; for example, “The wolf huffed / and he puffed / and he blew the house down!”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA07 Language
understand that in sentences nouns may be extended into noun groups using articles and adjectives, and verbs may be expressed as verb groups
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration identifying nouns that refer to people, places, concrete objects and ideas in sentences in texts, and identifying the articles and adjectives that extend those nouns
- Elaboration building extended noun groups using articles and adjectives; for example, “the longest side”
- Elaboration building extended verb groups using verbs; for example, “was touched”
- Elaboration investigating how noun groups can be built up by asking questions about the noun such as “how many?”, “what’s it like?”, “what type?”; for example, “two pairs of old walking shoes”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA08 Language
understand that images add to or multiply the meanings of a text
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying images and graphics in a text that add ideas or information not included in the written text; for example, a map or table in a factual text or an illustration in a story, which gives clues about the setting
- Elaboration identifying visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and considering how these images add to or multiply the meaning of accompanying words
Content descriptorAC9E2LE01 Literature
discuss how characters and settings are connected in literature created by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration discussing the depiction of characters in particular settings in well-known fairytales from wide-ranging world authors; for example, children in forests, and royalty in castles and towers
- Elaboration recognising recurring characters in particular settings in texts by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration exploring the way wide-ranging Australian authors and illustrators depict the Australian outback and the associated characters
Content descriptorAC9E2LE03 Literature
discuss the characters and settings of a range of texts and identify how language is used to present these features in different ways
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration comparing how similar characters or settings are described in texts from different contexts; for example, how the seasons are described
- Elaboration identifying and comparing verb groups used to convey actions, emotions and dialogue in a range of literary texts
- Elaboration identifying the language used to describe the landscape in First Nations Australians’ stories
Content descriptorAC9E2LY01 Literacy
identify how similar topics and information are presented in different types of texts
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration reading a poem, narrative and informative text about lifecycles and discussing what is learnt
- Elaboration exploring recipes presented on food packets, in recipe books, in short video clips and in a digital form, noting their shared purpose
Content descriptorAC9E2LY03 Literacy
identify the purpose and audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying the purpose of texts written by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration identifying the audience of advertisements and signs
Content descriptorAC9E2LY04 Literacy
read texts with phrasing and fluency, using phonic and word knowledge, and monitoring meaning by re-reading and self-correcting
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using phonic (sound–letter) and morphemic knowledge, and knowledge of high-frequency words when decoding text
- Elaboration monitoring own reading, self-correcting or reading back, re-reading when meaning does not make sense
Content descriptorAC9E2LY05 Literacy
use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning
Elaborations (7)
- Elaboration listening for specific information and providing key facts or points from an informative or persuasive text
- Elaboration listening and responding to detailed instructions
- Elaboration integrating information from print, images and prior knowledge to make supportable inferences
- Elaboration identifying the main idea of a text
- Elaboration predicting vocabulary that is likely to be in a text, based on the topic and the purpose of the text; for example, predicting that “station” and “arrive” would be in a text recounting a train journey
- Elaboration using prior knowledge to make and confirm predictions when reading a text
- Elaboration using graphic organisers to represent the connections between characters, order of events or sequence of information
They describe how similar topics and information are presented through the structure of narrative and informative texts, and identify their language features and visual features.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA03 Language
identify how texts across the curriculum are organised differently and use language features depending on purposes
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration identifying the typical features of a text; for example, a typical introduction to a narrative or the use of dot points in instructions
- Elaboration identifying that different types of texts might have different forms; for example, an expression of opinion might be in the form of a poster, email or brochure
- Elaboration identifying the organisation and language features in texts such as narratives, recounts, information reports, simple procedures, expression of opinion and responses to texts (including poetry), and discuss their purposes
Content descriptorAC9E2LA04 Language
understand how texts are made cohesive by using personal and possessive pronouns and by omitting words that can be inferred
Elaborations (5)
- Elaboration identifying language used to build information across a text; for example, through connecting similar and dissimilar things
- Elaboration mapping examples of word associations in texts; for example, words that refer to the main character in a story: “Isy”, “she”, “I”, “sister”, “student”
- Elaboration tracking how a person or thing is identified through a section of a text; for example, “eggs”, “they”, “them”
- Elaboration identifying words left out that can be inferred from the surrounding text; for example, “Xanthe went to school. She had a lovely day.” (at school is inferred)
- Elaboration using personal and possessive pronouns to link entities previously mentioned in the text
Content descriptorAC9E2LA05 Language
navigate print and screen texts using chapters, tables of contents, indexes, side-bar menus, drop-down menus or links
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration recognising how numbered chapters, organisation of tables of content and alphabetical order of indexes operate to support access to information
- Elaboration exploring how the navigation tools of different websites can be used to locate information
Content descriptorAC9E2LA06 Language
understand that connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with 2 or more independent clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction
Elaborations (1)
- Elaboration using coordinating conjunctions; for example, “and”, “but”, “so” to construct compound sentences; for example, “The wolf huffed / and he puffed / and he blew the house down!”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA07 Language
understand that in sentences nouns may be extended into noun groups using articles and adjectives, and verbs may be expressed as verb groups
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration identifying nouns that refer to people, places, concrete objects and ideas in sentences in texts, and identifying the articles and adjectives that extend those nouns
- Elaboration building extended noun groups using articles and adjectives; for example, “the longest side”
- Elaboration building extended verb groups using verbs; for example, “was touched”
- Elaboration investigating how noun groups can be built up by asking questions about the noun such as “how many?”, “what’s it like?”, “what type?”; for example, “two pairs of old walking shoes”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA08 Language
understand that images add to or multiply the meanings of a text
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying images and graphics in a text that add ideas or information not included in the written text; for example, a map or table in a factual text or an illustration in a story, which gives clues about the setting
- Elaboration identifying visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and considering how these images add to or multiply the meaning of accompanying words
Content descriptorAC9E2LA10 Language
recognise that capital letters are used in titles and commas are used to separate items in lists
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying how capital letters are used in the titles of texts
- Elaboration identifying commas used in lists in a variety of types of texts; for example, “This class has students who speak Vietnamese, Thai and Arabic at home.”
Content descriptorAC9E2LE01 Literature
discuss how characters and settings are connected in literature created by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration discussing the depiction of characters in particular settings in well-known fairytales from wide-ranging world authors; for example, children in forests, and royalty in castles and towers
- Elaboration recognising recurring characters in particular settings in texts by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration exploring the way wide-ranging Australian authors and illustrators depict the Australian outback and the associated characters
Content descriptorAC9E2LE03 Literature
discuss the characters and settings of a range of texts and identify how language is used to present these features in different ways
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration comparing how similar characters or settings are described in texts from different contexts; for example, how the seasons are described
- Elaboration identifying and comparing verb groups used to convey actions, emotions and dialogue in a range of literary texts
- Elaboration identifying the language used to describe the landscape in First Nations Australians’ stories
Content descriptorAC9E2LY01 Literacy
identify how similar topics and information are presented in different types of texts
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration reading a poem, narrative and informative text about lifecycles and discussing what is learnt
- Elaboration exploring recipes presented on food packets, in recipe books, in short video clips and in a digital form, noting their shared purpose
Content descriptorAC9E2LY03 Literacy
identify the purpose and audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying the purpose of texts written by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration identifying the audience of advertisements and signs
They use phonic and morphemic knowledge, and grammatical patterns to read unfamiliar words and most high-frequency words.
Content descriptorAC9E2LY04 Literacy
read texts with phrasing and fluency, using phonic and word knowledge, and monitoring meaning by re-reading and self-correcting
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using phonic (sound–letter) and morphemic knowledge, and knowledge of high-frequency words when decoding text
- Elaboration monitoring own reading, self-correcting or reading back, re-reading when meaning does not make sense
Content descriptorAC9E2LY09 Literacy
manipulate more complex sounds in spoken words and use knowledge of blending, segmenting, phoneme deletion and phoneme substitution to read and write words
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration blending and segmenting sounds in words; for example, “b-r-o-th-er” or “c-l-ou-d-y”
- Elaboration deleting and substituting sounds (phonemes) in spoken words to form new words; for example, delete the initial “scr” in “scratch” and substitute new initial sounds (phonemes) to form words such as “catch”, “batch” and “hatch”; substituting a medial sound (phoneme) to form a new word; for example, “stack” becomes “stick”
Content descriptorAC9E2LY10 Literacy
use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter/s) matches, including vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters and silent letters when reading and writing words of one or more syllables, including compound words
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration reading words with digraphs where one letter is not pronounced; for example, “knife” and “thumb”, when reading and using them in writing
- Elaboration providing the sounds for less common letter–sound matches; for example, “ight”, and using them in writing
- Elaboration reading words with vowel digraphs (“ee”, “oo”, “ai”, “ay”, “ea”)
Content descriptorAC9E2LY11 Literacy
use knowledge of spelling patterns and morphemes to read and write words whose spelling is not completely predictable from their sounds, including high-frequency words
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using known words and knowledge of spelling patterns and morphemes to write unknown words; for example, “one”, “once”, “only” and “lone”
- Elaboration using context to read the correct word when an unknown word has more than one plausible pronunciation
Content descriptorAC9E2LY12 Literacy
build morphemic word families using knowledge of prefixes and suffixes
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using morphemic knowledge of words to spell unknown words; for example, “one”, “once”, “cover”, “covering”, “uncover”
- Elaboration writing unknown words using morphemic knowledge; for example, using the known word “friend” to write “friendly” and “friendship”
They use punctuation for phrasing and fluency.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA10 Language
recognise that capital letters are used in titles and commas are used to separate items in lists
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying how capital letters are used in the titles of texts
- Elaboration identifying commas used in lists in a variety of types of texts; for example, “This class has students who speak Vietnamese, Thai and Arabic at home.”
Content descriptorAC9E2LY04 Literacy
read texts with phrasing and fluency, using phonic and word knowledge, and monitoring meaning by re-reading and self-correcting
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using phonic (sound–letter) and morphemic knowledge, and knowledge of high-frequency words when decoding text
- Elaboration monitoring own reading, self-correcting or reading back, re-reading when meaning does not make sense
They create written and/or multimodal texts including stories to inform, express an opinion, adapt an idea or narrate for audiences.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA02 Language
explore how language can be used for appreciating texts and providing reasons for preferences
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration exploring how language is used to appreciate texts using more precise vocabulary; for example, “I liked how the author described the setting because …”
- Elaboration exploring verbs used to express degree of preference; for example, “liked”, “preferred”, “enjoyed”
- Elaboration identifying First Nations Australian language words specific to Country/Place that help the reader to be specific when appreciating the setting in a text
Content descriptorAC9E2LA08 Language
understand that images add to or multiply the meanings of a text
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying images and graphics in a text that add ideas or information not included in the written text; for example, a map or table in a factual text or an illustration in a story, which gives clues about the setting
- Elaboration identifying visual representations of characters’ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and considering how these images add to or multiply the meaning of accompanying words
Content descriptorAC9E2LE01 Literature
discuss how characters and settings are connected in literature created by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration discussing the depiction of characters in particular settings in well-known fairytales from wide-ranging world authors; for example, children in forests, and royalty in castles and towers
- Elaboration recognising recurring characters in particular settings in texts by First Nations Australian authors
- Elaboration exploring the way wide-ranging Australian authors and illustrators depict the Australian outback and the associated characters
Content descriptorAC9E2LE02 Literature
identify features of literary texts, such as characters and settings, and give reasons for personal preferences
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration discussing preferences for stories set in familiar or unfamiliar worlds, or about characters whose lives are like or unlike their own
- Elaboration discussing their feelings about the positive and negative behaviours of non-human characters, such as animals
Content descriptorAC9E2LE05 Literature
create and edit literary texts by adapting structures and language features of familiar literary texts through drawing, writing, performance and digital tools
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration inventing some speech, dialogue or behaviour for a favourite character, which may include the use of video and audio tools, for an alternative event or outcome in the original text
- Elaboration reviewing and developing sentences; for example, adding prepositional phrases such as “with a long tail” to improve descriptions
Content descriptorAC9E2LY06 Literacy
create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
Elaborations (6)
- Elaboration creating written texts so that readers follow the sequence of ideas or events
- Elaboration using vocabulary, including topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate to the purpose
- Elaboration using digital tools to create texts
- Elaboration using simple and compound sentences correctly and flexibly to express and combine ideas
- Elaboration editing by adding, deleting or changing vocabulary to improve a text; for example, replacing an everyday noun with a topic-specific one
- Elaboration reviewing sentences for grammatical accuracy; for example, use of pronouns
They use text structures to organise and link ideas for a purpose.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA03 Language
identify how texts across the curriculum are organised differently and use language features depending on purposes
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration identifying the typical features of a text; for example, a typical introduction to a narrative or the use of dot points in instructions
- Elaboration identifying that different types of texts might have different forms; for example, an expression of opinion might be in the form of a poster, email or brochure
- Elaboration identifying the organisation and language features in texts such as narratives, recounts, information reports, simple procedures, expression of opinion and responses to texts (including poetry), and discuss their purposes
Content descriptorAC9E2LA04 Language
understand how texts are made cohesive by using personal and possessive pronouns and by omitting words that can be inferred
Elaborations (5)
- Elaboration identifying language used to build information across a text; for example, through connecting similar and dissimilar things
- Elaboration mapping examples of word associations in texts; for example, words that refer to the main character in a story: “Isy”, “she”, “I”, “sister”, “student”
- Elaboration tracking how a person or thing is identified through a section of a text; for example, “eggs”, “they”, “them”
- Elaboration identifying words left out that can be inferred from the surrounding text; for example, “Xanthe went to school. She had a lovely day.” (at school is inferred)
- Elaboration using personal and possessive pronouns to link entities previously mentioned in the text
Content descriptorAC9E2LE05 Literature
create and edit literary texts by adapting structures and language features of familiar literary texts through drawing, writing, performance and digital tools
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration inventing some speech, dialogue or behaviour for a favourite character, which may include the use of video and audio tools, for an alternative event or outcome in the original text
- Elaboration reviewing and developing sentences; for example, adding prepositional phrases such as “with a long tail” to improve descriptions
Content descriptorAC9E2LY06 Literacy
create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
Elaborations (6)
- Elaboration creating written texts so that readers follow the sequence of ideas or events
- Elaboration using vocabulary, including topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate to the purpose
- Elaboration using digital tools to create texts
- Elaboration using simple and compound sentences correctly and flexibly to express and combine ideas
- Elaboration editing by adding, deleting or changing vocabulary to improve a text; for example, replacing an everyday noun with a topic-specific one
- Elaboration reviewing sentences for grammatical accuracy; for example, use of pronouns
They punctuate simple and compound sentences.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA06 Language
understand that connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with 2 or more independent clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction
Elaborations (1)
- Elaboration using coordinating conjunctions; for example, “and”, “but”, “so” to construct compound sentences; for example, “The wolf huffed / and he puffed / and he blew the house down!”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA07 Language
understand that in sentences nouns may be extended into noun groups using articles and adjectives, and verbs may be expressed as verb groups
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration identifying nouns that refer to people, places, concrete objects and ideas in sentences in texts, and identifying the articles and adjectives that extend those nouns
- Elaboration building extended noun groups using articles and adjectives; for example, “the longest side”
- Elaboration building extended verb groups using verbs; for example, “was touched”
- Elaboration investigating how noun groups can be built up by asking questions about the noun such as “how many?”, “what’s it like?”, “what type?”; for example, “two pairs of old walking shoes”
Content descriptorAC9E2LA10 Language
recognise that capital letters are used in titles and commas are used to separate items in lists
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration identifying how capital letters are used in the titles of texts
- Elaboration identifying commas used in lists in a variety of types of texts; for example, “This class has students who speak Vietnamese, Thai and Arabic at home.”
Content descriptorAC9E2LY06 Literacy
create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
Elaborations (6)
- Elaboration creating written texts so that readers follow the sequence of ideas or events
- Elaboration using vocabulary, including topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate to the purpose
- Elaboration using digital tools to create texts
- Elaboration using simple and compound sentences correctly and flexibly to express and combine ideas
- Elaboration editing by adding, deleting or changing vocabulary to improve a text; for example, replacing an everyday noun with a topic-specific one
- Elaboration reviewing sentences for grammatical accuracy; for example, use of pronouns
They use topic-specific vocabulary.
Content descriptorAC9E2LA09 Language
experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit the topic
Elaborations (4)
- Elaboration selecting vocabulary appropriate to the topic to replace everyday language
- Elaboration discussing new vocabulary encountered in learning area texts
- Elaboration exploring language used to describe characters in narratives, including nouns; for example, “magician”, “wizard”, “sorcerer”, and adjectives such as “gentle”, “timid” or “frightened”
- Elaboration identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to a topic
Content descriptorAC9E2LY06 Literacy
create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
Elaborations (6)
- Elaboration creating written texts so that readers follow the sequence of ideas or events
- Elaboration using vocabulary, including topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate to the purpose
- Elaboration using digital tools to create texts
- Elaboration using simple and compound sentences correctly and flexibly to express and combine ideas
- Elaboration editing by adding, deleting or changing vocabulary to improve a text; for example, replacing an everyday noun with a topic-specific one
- Elaboration reviewing sentences for grammatical accuracy; for example, use of pronouns
They write words using consistently legible unjoined letters.
Content descriptorAC9E2LY08 Literacy
write words legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper-case and lower-case letters
Elaborations (1)
- Elaboration consolidating a functional pencil grip/grasp
They spell words with regular spelling patterns, and use phonic and morphemic knowledge to attempt to spell words with less common patterns.
Content descriptorAC9E2LY06 Literacy
create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
Elaborations (6)
- Elaboration creating written texts so that readers follow the sequence of ideas or events
- Elaboration using vocabulary, including topic-specific vocabulary, appropriate to the purpose
- Elaboration using digital tools to create texts
- Elaboration using simple and compound sentences correctly and flexibly to express and combine ideas
- Elaboration editing by adding, deleting or changing vocabulary to improve a text; for example, replacing an everyday noun with a topic-specific one
- Elaboration reviewing sentences for grammatical accuracy; for example, use of pronouns
Content descriptorAC9E2LY09 Literacy
manipulate more complex sounds in spoken words and use knowledge of blending, segmenting, phoneme deletion and phoneme substitution to read and write words
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration blending and segmenting sounds in words; for example, “b-r-o-th-er” or “c-l-ou-d-y”
- Elaboration deleting and substituting sounds (phonemes) in spoken words to form new words; for example, delete the initial “scr” in “scratch” and substitute new initial sounds (phonemes) to form words such as “catch”, “batch” and “hatch”; substituting a medial sound (phoneme) to form a new word; for example, “stack” becomes “stick”
Content descriptorAC9E2LY10 Literacy
use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter/s) matches, including vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters and silent letters when reading and writing words of one or more syllables, including compound words
Elaborations (3)
- Elaboration reading words with digraphs where one letter is not pronounced; for example, “knife” and “thumb”, when reading and using them in writing
- Elaboration providing the sounds for less common letter–sound matches; for example, “ight”, and using them in writing
- Elaboration reading words with vowel digraphs (“ee”, “oo”, “ai”, “ay”, “ea”)
Content descriptorAC9E2LY11 Literacy
use knowledge of spelling patterns and morphemes to read and write words whose spelling is not completely predictable from their sounds, including high-frequency words
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using known words and knowledge of spelling patterns and morphemes to write unknown words; for example, “one”, “once”, “only” and “lone”
- Elaboration using context to read the correct word when an unknown word has more than one plausible pronunciation
Content descriptorAC9E2LY12 Literacy
build morphemic word families using knowledge of prefixes and suffixes
Elaborations (2)
- Elaboration using morphemic knowledge of words to spell unknown words; for example, “one”, “once”, “cover”, “covering”, “uncover”
- Elaboration writing unknown words using morphemic knowledge; for example, using the known word “friend” to write “friendly” and “friendship”
About the strands
The 27 content descriptors linked to ASENGY2 sit under these strands.
Language
Knowledge about language structures, features, patterns and how language works in context.
Literature
Engagement with literary texts, responses, contexts and the ways literature creates meaning.
Literacy
The practices students use to understand and create spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts.
A practical planning sequence
- Choose the curriculum focus. Choose the texts, language features and literacy practices that anchor the sequence.
- Select a meaningful context. Connect explicit teaching with purposeful reading, viewing, speaking, listening and creating.
- Plan connected learning. Use the linked descriptors together where that creates a coherent sequence.
- Map the evidence. Collect varied evidence of comprehension, language use and text creation across the term.
Turn this curriculum map into a teaching sequence
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